FALLING into a black hole in space could send you into a PARALLEL UNIVERSE rather than simply swallowing you up, Professor Stephen Hawking has sensationally claimed.

Giving fresh hope to those who fear humankind may one day be consumed by the galactic plug holes, the world-renowned British scientist unveiled his latest theory at a specialist conference in Stockholm, Sweden.

He said: "If you feel you are in a black hole, don’t give up. There’s a way out.”

Until now, it was the theoretical 'wormhole' that was regarded as the portal to alternative dimensions.

However, Prof. Hawking described how he has become aware of a theoretical way “by which information from matter taken into a black hole is actually returned out of them".

It is believed at the centre of a black hole is a place where gravity compresses down matter so much that the standard laws of physics no longer apply.

It was widely held that any information (such as DNA) about the physical make-up of anything going into a black hole would be lost, which is clearly impossible under the laws physicists work under.

But Hawking is convinced the information has to go somewhere - either by being zapped into a new dimension elsewhere or processed within the black hole and ending up like a hologram of itself on the outside edge of the structure.

This is where 'Hawking radiation' - the substance that comes out of a black hole and previously named after the Univesity of Cambridge academic - ends up.

Prof. Hawking spoke at the KTH Royal Institute of Technology, which is hosting the Hawking Radiation Conference, focussed on the mystery of the information paradox and what happens after something is consumed by a black hole.

If you feel you are in a black hole, don’t give up. There’s a way out.

Professor Stephen Hawking

In a blog following the lecture, Prof. Hawking wrote: “The existence of alternative histories with black holes suggests this might be possible.

"The hole would need to be large and if it was rotating it might have a passage to another universe. But you couldn’t come back to our universe.

"So although I’m keen on space flight, I’m not going to try that.

“The message of this lecture is that black holes ain’t as black as they are painted. They are not the eternal prisons they were once thought.

"Things can get out of a black hole both on the outside and possibly come out in another universe.”

Scientists have categorised three sizes of black holes.

The smallest - as tiny as the size of an atom but with the mass of a mountain - are believed to have formed when the universe began

Stellar black holes are made when the centre of a very big star falls in upon itself, or collapses, causing a supernova - an exploding star that blasts part of itself into space.

Scientists think supermassive black holes - each with the mass of millions of stars - were formed at the same time as the galaxy they are in began.